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Kerry-Anne Walsh was in the Canberra press gallery for 25 years, occupying senior posts in print, radio, and TV. She has now left reporting to write books and consult. Her latest book, Hoodwinked: How Pauline Hanson fooled a nation, looks at Hanson's colourful career - her time as an accidental local councilor, her… Audio

Damian Skinner is an art historian, writer and former museum curator. He is interested in the history of cultural contact between Māori and Pākehā and the relationship between art and politics in Aotearoa New Zealand. His latest book is a profile of irascible émigré artist Theo Schoon, called Theo Schoon: A Biography. The book, says Skinner, shines a light on Schoon's significant contribution to art and culture in New Zealand, not least his championing of Māori art.

Theo Schoon: art and life

A self-portrait of Schoon taken in the studio of Bell’s Camera House, Wellington, circa 1942. Schoon estate collection.

Schoon with one of his Beautiful-Indies paintings in his basement studio in the Wellington YMCA, circa 1942. Te Papa Tongarewa, CA000841/001/0047

Dancer, circa 1946. Theo Schoon gave this painting to John Money when they first met in Christchurch in 1946. Painting by Theo Schoon. Eastern Southland Gallery, Gore, JMC 02.218.

Schoon painted this version of kōwhaiwhai sometime in the late 1950s, when he and Gordon Walters were exchanging ideas and working out how they could make modern art based on Māori designs like the koru. Painting by Theo Schoon. Auckland Art Gallery, 1990/2.

Theo Schoon in his house at Home Street in 1962, surrounded by gourds, a sculpture made from driftwood collected at Taupō, gourd puppets and painted panels. Photograph by Bernie Hill. Hocken Library, MS-1294/011.

Gourds decorated with designs based on tā moko patterns were Schoon’s first experiments in gourd carving. Quite often he would display them against backdrops painted with patterns based on tā moko or kōwhaiwhai. Photograph by Theo Schoon, circa 1960. Te Papa Tongarewa, CA000840/001/0048.

Schoon, in clothing of his own design made from batik cloth, poses with a mask of Rangda, processed July 1978. Photograph by Theo Schoon. Te Papa Tongarewa, CA000841/001/0045.

9.06 Kerry-Anne Walsh - The phenomenon of Pauline Hanson

Pauline Hanson Photo: AFP

Kerry-Anne Walsh Photo: supplied

Kerry-Anne Walsh was in the Canberra press gallery for 25 years, occupying senior posts in print, radio, and TV. She has now left reporting to write books and consult. Her latest book, Hoodwinked: How Pauline Hanson fooled a nation, looks at Hanson's colourful career - her time as an accidental local councilor, her emergence as a surprising national figure in 1996 and her resurrection in 2016, her careful profile-building through the media during the intervening years, the friends she has used and discarded, the money trail of her party and her personal finances.

9.35 Professor Tim Bale - Breaking on Brexit

tim Bale Photo: Supplied

Tim Bale is a professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London. He will talk to Kim about a week of major developments in the long-running Brexit saga, including an ostensible backing of Theresa May's Brexit agreement with the European Union, divisions that remain within the Conservative Party, and how likely the agreement is to be passed through Parliament.

10.04 Peter FitzSimons - A rollicking retelling of Mutiny on the Bounty

Peter FitzSimons Photo: supplied

Marlon Brandon as Fletcher Christian (1962) Photo: Wikicommons

Peter FitzSimons is Australia's best-selling non-fiction writer, and for the past 30 years has also been a journalist and columnist with the Sydney Morning Herald and the Sun Herald. He is the author of a number of highly successful books, including Kokoda, Ned Kelly and Gallipoli, as well as biographies of such notable Australians as Sir Douglas Mawson, Nancy Wake and Nick Farr-Jones. He lives in Sydney and is married to journalist and television presenter Lisa Wilkinson. His most recent book chronicles the story of Captain William Bligh, Fletcher Christian, and history's most famous mutiny - Mutiny on the Bounty.

10.35 Mary Kisler - Exhibitions in Europe

Mary Kisler Photo: supplied

Mary Kisler is the senior curator, Mackelvie Collection, International Art, at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki. She has spent much of 2018 researching not one but two books on Frances Hodgkins, necessitating travel to Europe which included catching a Modigliani show at MUDEC in Milan and a show by environmental artist Mike Perry at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre. She talks to Kim about her travels, as well as a big year planned to celebrate Frances Hodgkins in 2019.

11.04 Ben Branson - Spirit of Seedlip

Ben Branson Photo: Supplied

The random discovery of a book written in 1651 called The Art of Distillation put Ben Branson on the path to creating the world's first distilled non-alcoholic spirit. Hailing from Lincolnshire in England, Branson comes from a family which has been farming for 320 years, using baskets called seedlips to sow seeds. He calls his business Seedlip, and he describes it as a nature company first and a drinks company second. Seedlip is concerned with sustainable agriculture and has won two gold medals at the Chelsea Flower Show. Branson is in Aotearoa to promote the range of spirits made from ingredients such as peas, hay, herbs and oranges and sold in 20 countries.

11.40 Steve Braunias - The best of The Friday Poem

Steve Braunias Photo: Steve Braunias

Steve Braunias is an author, journalist, critic and publisher. He has served as the poetry editor for The Spinoff for four years, and is about to step aside from that role. Before doing so, he has published The Friday Poem, a collection of 100 poems by 61 poets - "some dead, some nearly dead, a number of complete nobodies, a number of well-known authors, and Colin Craig". Braunias says the collection reflects a revolution in new local poetry, led mainly by young women - including the likes of Hera Lindsay Bird and Tayi Tibble.

Books mentioned in this episode:

Theo Schoon: A Biography

by Damian Skinner

ISBN: 9780995100176

Massey University Press

Hoodwinked: How Pauline Hanson fooled a nation

by Kerry-Anne Walsh

ISBN:9781760112288

Allen & Unwin

Mutiny on the Bounty

by Peter FitzSimons

ISBN: 9780733634116

Hachette

The Friday Poem

edited by Steve Braunias

ISBN: 9780473450281

Luncheon Sausage Books

Playlist

Artist: Alynda Segarra and the Special Men
Song: Don't Tell Me That It's Over
Composer: King James (Jimmy Horn)
Label: Special Man industries
Played at: 8:55